Brian Ashcraft

On Track. Kurashiki, Japan. By Nick Hans. JPGs is a photo peek into wherever gamers might find interesting. If you’re a photographer and have images you want to share, drop us a line! 

Track: Summer Song | Artist: Louis Armstrong and Dave Brubeck | Album: Summer Song Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Making CG Japanese Schoolgirls Is Difficult

This is Saya. According to her co-creator, Yuka Ishikiawa, bringing her to life was not easy. The hurdle, Ishikawa explained via Twitter, is “quite high.” The CG schoolgirl model needs to contain a certain softness as well as the purity of her age. In short, it needs to look like a real person. Mission accomplished,…

Nintendo Switch Vs. PlayStation 4: In Japan, The Switch Keeps Dominating 

Of course the Nintendo Switch is doing better than the PS4 in Japan, you might say. But that’s not what I’m talking about. Rather, in each console’s first 26 weeks on sale in Japan, the Nintendo Switch posted significantly better sales numbers than the PS4 did. Previously, Kotaku has reported how the Nintendo Switch was…

Evangelion Creator Now Selling Hondas 

How often do you see an anime creator in a car commercial? Even in Japan, not often! Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno is featured in a new Honda ad, even doing some of the narration. Besides Evangelion, Anno makes live-action films and most recently, he directed Godzilla Resurgence. He also does voice acting, such as in…

Hurricane Harvey. Houston, Texas. By Lance Bradford. You can donate to the Red Cross to help those impacted by the hurricane right here

Track: Across the Universe | Artist: Utada Hikaru | Album: N/A  Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Read The Japanese Horror Manga That’s Been Retweeted Over 94,000 Times

One of the most common horror tropes in Japanese horror involve taxis, with stories of scary passengers or terrifying drivers. Comic magazine Bunch tweeted out several pages from a manga called Yokai Hayashi, with the word “hayashi” (囃子) meaning a traditional type of Japanese orchestra. Here are all four pages in the original Japanese. Below…

Fans Crowdfund a Hatsune Miku Shrine For Over $40,000 

Last year, a group of South Korean Hatsune Miku fans crowdfunded a billboarddedicated to the digital diva. This year, they’re back, and this time they’ve crowdfunded what looks like a shrine to the virtual idol.  According to tipster Sang, fans raised about $4,000 on Kickstarter and another $37,000 (yes, $37,000!) on crowdfunding site Tumblbug for…

The Inevitable Has Happened: Manga Hunter X Hunter Is Going Back On Hiatus

Manga artist Yoshihiro Togashi is well known for taking breaks. And it appears that’s exactly what he’s doing once again. That’s right, Hunter x Hunter is going back on hiatus. Via the Hunter x Hunter Hiatus Chart, here is how the manga’s publication run has looked: As Kotaku previously reported, Togashi’s longest Hunter x Hunter…

A special Hatsune Miku PS4 bundle is coming out for Hatsune Miku Diva Future Tone DX’s release. The game isn’t included, but the hardware, available in either 500GB or 1TB, comes with a special console cover and a downloadable wallpaper. It’ll be out in Japan on November 22. No word about an international release. 

Sakurajima. Kyushu, Japan. By Martin Steigele. JPGs is a photo peek into wherever gamers might find interesting. If you’re a photographer and have images you want to share, drop us a line!   

Track: Instant Karma! | Artist: Lennon/Ono with the Plastic Ono Band | Album: Live in New York City Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Fans Love The Way This Street Fighter V Character Walks

It’s not everyday that the way a character saunters is interesting enough for players to take notice. With Street Fighter V character Menat, they’re doing just that. Fortune teller Menatwas just released in SFV’s second season of DLC. She has an excellent gait. See? So good. The way she fights does look cool. Some pros…

The Ways Brock And Misty Have Changed Over The Years

Next month, Brock and Misty are returning to the Pokémon TV anime. The trainers appeared in the original series, and just as Ash has changed over the years, so have they. The art style for subsequent series evolved and changed, so when Brock and Misty made appearances, they did, too. As Kotaku previously reported, both…

Sony is holding its pre-Tokyo Game Show press conference on September 19 from 4pm Japan Time. It will be directed at the domestic Japanese market, but could have some surprises.

Awkward Adventures In Sega’s Digital Horse Racing Game

“First you need to register,” the staffer at Club Sega tells me. “Then after you do that, you can put money on your IC card.” The lowest option is 1,000 yen ($9), and the highest one is 200,000 yen ($1,817). The staffer adds, “And this machine only accepts cash. But first, I need to take…

Fushimi Inari-taisha. Kyoto, Japan. By Akbar Hussain. JPGs is a photo peek into wherever gamers might find interesting. If you’re a photographer and have images you want to share, drop us a line! 

Track: Smells Like Nirvana | Artist: “Weird Al” Yankovic | Album: Off the Deep End  Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Japan Comes Up With Polite Slang For Twitter Replies

When people in Japan see “FF,” they immediately think Final Fantasy. And for good reason! For decades, “FF” has been shorthand for the iconic role-playing game series. But recently, Twitter users have been using “FF” as a polite way to reply to others. As GetNews reports recently, “FF” refers to “Follow” and “Follower.” It is…